25 Aug - 3 Sept
Deburred aileron nose ribs, also made a practice center rib and flap rib to show the mechanic for verification of my processes. Cleaned Kitfox engine.
Thoroughly inspected Kitfox with Bradley Webb, learned a lot about what needs to be done with these things
Began fixing the squawks. A spark plug cap was too loose, and the disc on the left wheel brake was missing bolts because the threads were ripped.
Decided to try and but a lock nut on to replace the ripped threads. I had to make a special tool to accomplish this, but it didn't work very well.
Decided to use a 1/4"" tapped steel back plate for the bolts. Broke off my tap trying to cut the threads, may need a better tap set. Got new tap and tapped the steel. It will be held on by a single 8-32 countersunk machine screw. Kind of like a heavy duty nut plate. Seems to work ok
Cut out the steel and drilled for the machine screw. The hole in the wheel needs to be countersunk because the brake disc bolts right up against the top. May need to do this even for the good bolt of the three just to keep the wheel balanced��br>
Continued working on brakes. Decided to leave off a piece of steel on the third bolt, just hoping it's not significant enough to cause any vibration. Doing some deburring in between.
Finally fixed the brakes just to have to take the wheel back off and removed a broken part. Looks like she's good now��br>
Got annual signed off, prepared for a flying day
Cleaned Kitfox, fixed tailwheel. It had a missing part that allowed it to free-wheel in only one direction, but I made a replacement that would allow both directions. It's an old maule tailwheel
Flew kitfox, actually ground looped it without any damage. That's what I get for trying to land and stop on a 400 ft strip with a passenger (Luke). Also deburred some more and hammered out some practice pieces